Emphasis on his "own polling."  Closely followed by "mobbed-up."

Democrat Alexi Giannoulias leads Republican Mark Kirk in the race for U.S. Senate in Illinois, 46 – 43 percent. In addition, voters approve of the job that Giannoulias is doing as state Treasurer by more than a 2:1 margin.

In a matchup against Democrat David Hoffman, however, Kirk fares much better. Kirk leads Hoffman by a 48 – 39 percent margin. Giannoulias outpaces Hoffman’s performance in every region of the state, including the city of Chicago.

Giannoulias currently leads Kirk in the Chicago media market by a 51 – 38 percent margin. David Hoffman, who has spent the last four years in the public eye as the city’s Inspector General and generated 405 news stories, trails Kirk inside the Chicago market (41 – 47 percent).

The general election findings are based on a sample of 805 likely general election voters conducted October 25th – 28th conducted for the Alexi for Illinois campaign. A sample of this size is subject to a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

The real question here is: How is it that Giannoulias only has 51% in Chicago?  Shouldn't that be more like 60% or 70%?  Isn't Chicago his home turf, where his base lives?  Oh no, that's right, "Chicago" is just the kind of dirty, dodgy politics Alexi practices.

Seriously, the only reason I'm writing on this is to note that Giannoulias' OWN POLLING only puts him 3 points ahead of Kirk.  Which in the real world probably means that Kirk is at least a few points ahead of him. 

Oh, and to reiterate that Giannoulias is ethically challenged.[intro]

Well, well, well... look what drivers are finding on their car windshields around my building in Rosslyn this morning?

No, no... it's not yet another parking ticket garnered by yours truly... It's a mock parking ticket issued to 48th District Delegate Bob Brink, presumably for having parked his butt in Richmond for too long without doing too much.  Chuckle, chuckle.

No, seriously, this is a little out-of-the-ordinary way for Aaron Ringel, Brink's challenger who was endorsed by the Washington Post last weekend, to get his name and message out there a few days before the election (at least assuming more of these appear on car windshields in the 48th this weekend).  It's definitely more clever and amusing than your standard voter mail, and certainly grabbed my attention more than all those tedious robocalls I've been getting from both Ds and Rs ahead of the election (somewhat inexplicably).  Nice one, Aaron.  [intro]

Well, this is bad news.  47% of those polled in this Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll would vote to get rid of gay marriage in Maine.  48% would vote to keep it.  5%, incredibly, can't make up their minds.

I certainly hope those fighting to keep gay marriage in the state are making their phone calls, running their ads, knocking on doors, and so on and so forth.  You can bet the National Organization for Marriage people are... [intro]